The Soilify Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Offsets alone won't cut it when it comes to our mitigation efforts. What more must we do? On the podcast today, we have Edit Kiss, Chief Investment Officer at London’s Revalue Nature. She talks to us about incentivizing and accounting for efforts in carbon reduction, the complexity of the exercise, and the public discourse around it. 

Shownotes:

• UNEP Report on “State of Finance for Nature”: https://www.unep.org/resources/state-finance-nature
• SBTi FLAG (Science Based Targets Initiative: Forest Land and Agriculture): https://sciencebasedtargets.org/
• Tropical Forest Alliance: https://www.tropicalforestalliance.org/
• John Oliver on Carbon Offsets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p8zAbFKpW0

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What can a formal financing programme for regenerative agriculture look like? Arindom Datta, Executive Director of Rural and Development Banking and Advisory at Rabobank, tells us in this episode. He talks to us about impact monitoring, agreeing on terminologies and definitions, and his optimism for RegAg financing in India. 

Shownotes:

• The Blended Finance initiative from the Impact Investors Council: https://blendedfinanceindia.org/industry-insight.html
• MFI: Microfinance Institution
• LP: Limited Partnership

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What do we incentivize when we incentivize regenerative agriculture? Our guest on the Season 2 opener today, Climate Farmers co-founder Ivo Degn, offers his analysis on this issue. He also talks to us about farmers earning carbon credits, the changing attitudes of investors when it comes to regenerative agriculture, and our options as a planet if we want to continue feeding ourselves. 

Shownotes:

• Climate Farmers: https://www.climatefarmers.org/
• The History of Carbon Offsetting: https://impactful.ninja/the-history-of-carbon-offsetting/
• Nori Carbon Removal Marketplace, USA: https://nori.com/
• Project Together: https://projecttogether.org/

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After making the necessary switches in agricultural practices, keeping a close watch on soil carbon content, ensuring you’ve got the right kind of investments and a foot in the door of the voluntary carbon market, what next? That’s what this season finale of the Soilify Podcast is all about. Our guest today is Kirti Prasanna Mishra, co-founder of business consulting firm Ecociate. He talks to us about connecting with the right market for organic produce and finding an entrepreneur within the farmer.

Shownotes:

• A survey of American consumers from the US-based International Food Information Council found that in 2020, 85% of those surveyed reported changes in their food habits. The number fell to 72% in 2021. Read more about it here.
• A list of abbreviations:

FAO: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN

FPO: Farmer Producer Organisation

ICAR: Indian Council for Agricultural Research

IFAD: International Fund for Agricultural Development

KfW: Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (Credit Institute for Reconstruction)

Music: This Science by Coma-Media

When we agree on reducing carbon emissions, how do we agree on the standards that measure them? In this episode, we have Viridiana Alcantara-Shivapatham, a Senior Program Officer at Verra, one of the world’s largest carbon standards organisations. Here she talks about the painstaking review processes that go behind their work, the role of smallholder farmers in the carbon market, and how carbon emissions go much beyond just carbon dioxide.

Shownotes:

• FAO guidelines for measuring and modelling soil carbon stocks and stock changes in livestock production systems: https://www.fao.org/3/CA2934EN/ca2934en.pdf
• Verra’s VM0042 Methodology for Improved Agricultural Land Management, v1.0:  https://verra.org/methodology/vm0042-methodology-for-improved-agricultural-land-management-v1-0/

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There are billions of dollars flowing into ecosystem restoration globally. But what makes it move? Sheeba Sen and Pradyot Porwal, who run Hasten Ventures, tell us exactly that. Listen in for a conversation that covers the global carbon markets, philanthropic funding and commercial capital.

Shownotes:

• Hasten Ventures: https://www.hasten.ventures/home
• The Iris+ Guidelines: https://iris.thegiin.org/
• A Comprehensive Overview of Global Biodiversity Finance, OECD: https://www.oecd.org/environment/resources/biodiversity/report-a-comprehensive-overview-of-global-biodiversity-finance.pdf

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In this episode, we take our boots to the ground. Dr Mohinder Singh heads a farmer producer organisation (FPO) in Haryana. Apart from tending to the crops in his field and addressing the concerns of the farmers in his FPO, he also teaches agricultural sciences at a local university. Here, he speaks about the farmers’ perception of regenerative agriculture, the state of soil health in his region, and how he sees the two developing at a larger scale in India. This interview is in Hindi. You can find a translated transcript on the Soilify Medium blog.

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How is India placed in the global shift towards regenerative agriculture? Rajeev Ahal from GIZ talks about the state of regenerative agriculture in India, experiments from other parts of the world, and possible expectations from international collaborations.

Shownotes:

• Masanobu Fukuoka, is the author of One Straw Revolution, a book which is often credited with popularising the practices and philosophy of natural farming. His other works include The Natural Way of Farming, and Sowing Seeds in the Desert. He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay award in 1988. You can find out more about him here
• The policy paper (no. 90) on “zero-budget natural farming” or ZBNF from the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences can be found here.
• A detailed report from Down To Earth on the Sri Lankan agricultural crisis from last year is here.

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Introducing Soilify! Listen to Earth Analytics India founder Michael Anthony as he introduces the organisation’s Project Soilify. He talks about the shift to regenerative farming in India, the potential for remote sensing in the field, and the difference between soil and dirt.

Shownotes:

• International examples of carbon farming from the USA, Germany and the EU.
• McKinsey study how carbon markets can help meet net zero markets
• Forecasts on the worth of the global voluntary carbon markets by 2050

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